Happy TV turkey day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers, and (as Dan would say) happy Thursday to the rest of you.

In honor of the holiday – and the upcoming Chanukah/Christmas/Kwanzaa/New Year’s holiday deluge – I’m going to embed two classic scenes from sitcom Thanksgiving episodes, plus the entirety of the first Chrismukkah episode of “The O.C.” If you’ve got some time in front of the computer today before the turkey/football starts, enjoy, and then time for an open question: What’s your favorite TV holiday episode ever, and why?

First up: the famous climax to the “Turkeys Away” episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati”:

Next: the third act of “Thanksgiving Orphans,” in which the regulars from “Cheers” wind up spending the holiday together when everyone’s plans fall through:

And finally, Seth Cohen tries to help Ryan have “The Best Chrismukkah Ever” on “The O.C.,” and Rachel Bilson gives Seth a Chrismukkah present that Fienberg has never forgotten:

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I love the Thanksgiving episode from Season 2 of Will and Grace when Jack comes out to his mother and finds out he’s a “Black boy.” A particular highlight is his mother’s “dry run” the day before!

By: DirtyKash

11.25.2010 @ 1:16 PM

The Seinfeld episode, “The Strike”, because it’s a Festivus for the rest of us, as well as because of the Feats of Strength, the Airing of Grievances, and because the Festivus pole eliminates all distracting tinsel. It’s a Festivus miracle!

By: Sonia

11.25.2010 @ 1:45 PM

Ditto on the Festivus episode — cracks me up every time!

I also love So-Called Angels from My So Called Life — this is the episode when Ricky became homeless. Still mad they cancelled that show…

And the “Yankee Swap” episode from The Office is pretty great.

By: Tray

11.25.2010 @ 1:27 PM

Nobody does Thanksgiving like the West Wing!

By: alamble

11.25.2010 @ 3:55 PM

Amen to that. Sorkin wrote some incredible holiday episodes for The West Wing.

By: pamelajaye

11.27.2010 @ 11:30 PM

It’s a tie between Shibboleth and Pangs, from Buffy.
This year I made DVDs:
Pangs and Shibboleth
Chuck vs (The Nemesis?) with Slapsgiving 1 (I don’t have 2) and My Day Off, which sort of touched on Thanksgiving
and
Northern Exposure Thanksgiving (I don’t think I ever saw this one – and it was when Anthony Edwards was on) with The Leap Home – Quantum Leap (which, technically, aired in September and was not a Thanksgiving ep – but it was set at Thanksgiving and they had dinner)

By: velocityknown

11.25.2010 @ 1:56 PM

The Friends’ Thanksgiving episodes were always classic.

How I Met Your Mother’s Slapsgiving

Arrested Development’s Afternoon Delight

The two holiday episodes from Mad Men season four (Christmas Comes But Once a Year and Good News) both so depressingly awesome.

Chuck versus the Santa Claus

Dexter’s Hungry Man

30 Rock’s Ludachristmas

The Office’s A Benihana Christmas

Too many to list, but those are the personal faves.

By: Anonymous

11.26.2010 @ 6:01 PM

Absolutely agree with the Dexter episode for most twistedly awesome Thanksgiving episode, Lithgow and Michael C. Hall were amazing!

By: Maddict

11.25.2010 @ 2:09 PM

(This isn’t spam.)

Mad Men seasons 1,2, and 3 on DVD and Blu-Ray are now on sale for $9,99 at Amazon. That’s 80% off the list price.

Thanks for the heads up! I had been waiting for something like this to get these and now they are gotten!

By: LoopyChew

11.25.2010 @ 4:30 PM

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

By: Joel

11.25.2010 @ 2:26 PM

“Pangs” from Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s schizophrenic fourth seasons offers a multitude to be thankful for. It’s a Buffy holiday like every other, colored by the mixture of death and chaos that seems to match those bustling days (Halloween, Christmas) in theme and tone. This episode, the series’ sole ponderance on Thanksgiving, is a mish-mash of strong family figureheads butting heads about what to do with a Native American vengeance demon. As do typical Thanksgiving dinners invite the different political feelings, Giles and Willow bicker about the demon’s plight; even Buffy offers some compassion during the midst of a Shumash siege. Despite an overstuffed ep of zingers and great line readings, it’s Spike who steals the show. Tied up during the siege, Spike witnesses the angered vengeance demon transform into a bear. A beleaguered James Marsters offers up one of the best readings to one of Buffy’s stupidest bits of dialogue: “A bear! You made a bear!…Undo it! Undo it!”

By: UnHoly Diver

11.25.2010 @ 6:11 PM

God, I forgot about that episode. I’m cracking up now just thinking about that line from Spike. That and the “disguised” middle finger he shoots Giles. Classic, funny episode.

By: ravensbane

11.25.2010 @ 11:44 PM

ANYA (about Thanksgiving): “I love a ritual sacrifice”.

BUFFY: “It’s not really a one of those.”

ANYA: “To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It’s a ritual sacrifice. With pie.”

By: D'hoffryn

11.26.2010 @ 1:38 PM

Reply to comment…

By: D'hoffryn

11.26.2010 @ 1:42 PM

I echo the Pangs love. The one after that is pretty wonderful as well, but–hehe–I might be biased.

By: pamelajaye

11.27.2010 @ 11:39 PM

Quarter cup of Brandy and let it simmer. We say that a lot around here. Couldn’t watch Buffy this year as the roomie objected. I missed the frozen atrocities and mushy peas…. but I contented myself with the carving knife made by Paul Revere and the latin word for Yam – and Mrs Landingham telling Jed to ask hte 4th graders how to use the intercom.

By: srpad

11.25.2010 @ 3:25 PM

The ones I would have said have been mentioned so I will just wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

By: ZacharyTF

11.25.2010 @ 3:58 PM

Operator: Hello, welcome to the Butterball Hotline.

Toby: What the hell is…

Bartlet: Shhhh. Hello!!

Operator: How can I help you, sir?

Bartlet: Well, first let me say, I think this is a wonderful service you provide.

Operator: Well, thank you. May I have your name please?

Bartlet: I’m a citizen.

Operator: I’m sure you are, sir, but if I have your name I can put your comments in our customer feedback form.

Bartlet: I’m Joe Betherson…ton. That’s one ‘t’, and with an ‘h’ in there.

Operator: And your address?

Bartlet: Fargo.

Operator: Your street address, please?

Toby: [picks up another phone, into it] Zip code, Fargo, North Dakota, right now. [hangs up]

Bartlet: My street address is 114… 54 Pruder Street, and it’s very important that you put ‘street’ down there because sometimes it gets confused with Pruder Way and Pruder Lane. Apartment 23 R… Fargo, North Dakota… [Charlie walks in with a piece of paper, Bartlet grabs it.] Zip code 50504.

Operator: Thank you. Your voice sounds very familiar to me.

Bartlet: I do radio commercials for… products.

Operator: And how can I help you?

Bartlet: [sits down] Stuffing should be stuffed inside the turkey, am I correct?

Operator: It can also be baked in a casserole dish.

Bartlet: Well, then we’d have to call it something else, wouldn’t we? [Toby sits down and puts his hand under his chin.]

Operator: I suppose.

Bartlet: If I cook it inside the turkey, is there a chance I could kill my guests? I’m not saying that’s necessarily a deal-breaker.

Operator: Well, there are some concerns. Two main bacterial problems are Salmonella and Campylobacter jejuni.

Bartlet: All right. Well, first of all, I think you made the second bacteria up, and second of all, how do I avoid it?

Cougar Town: Here Comes My Girl – the episode that cemented Cougar Town as the best new comedy of last season, one of my favourite Thanksgiving episodes of any show ever

Friends: The One Where Ross Got High – “I’m in love with Jacques Cousteau!” ‘Nuff said.

How I Met Your Mother: Slutty Pumpkin – Barney’s costumes, Lily as a parrot, Robin as the anti-Gretel

By: Xeddicus

11.26.2010 @ 4:57 AM

Another ‘vote’ for Chuck versus the Santa Claus. Too bad they’re not doing one this year. Hopefully the next episode makes for it.

By: Anonymous

11.26.2010 @ 5:07 AM

Damn I miss the OC!

By: EJ

11.26.2010 @ 5:15 AM

Me too!

By: Sarah

11.26.2010 @ 3:29 PM

My all time favorite holiday episode is probably “Merry Christmas, Mrs. Moskawitz” from Frasier, where the family has to pretend to be Jewish. The whole episode is great, but what really takes the cake is seeing Niles run in and out of the apartment dressed up as Jesus (with the sniffles), for the Christmas show Daphne is directing. It never fails to crack me up.

I also love A Benihana Christmas from The Office, “Noel” from The West Wing, and pretty much all the Friends Thanksgiving eps, especially “The One With Rachel’s Other Sister”. Christina Applegate is brilliant in that ep.

Veronica Mars – “An Echolls Family Christmas” — One of the best episodes of the entire series

By: Oliver

11.26.2010 @ 7:19 PM

All time favourite: 3rd Rock from the Sun “Jolly Old St. Dick”, Lithgow at his best, great cast all around.
From more recent times: Dexter’s “Hungry Man” and Community’s “The December 10th” episode (or whatever it’s called)

By: M.A.Peel

11.27.2010 @ 8:59 PM

The Laurel & Hardy “March of the Wooden Soldiers.” WPIX used to run it every Thanksgiving. The raid of the bogey men is still pretty frightening.